Three Fine Rides And Counting At The Miami Boat Show Poker Run

The notion that go-fast boats are more than thrill-machines and can often provide great transportation has come roaring back to me in the past two days of covering the Florida Powerboat Club Miami Boat Show Poker Run. Allow me to explain.

Thanks to Performance Boat Center, the author led off his Miami Boat Show Poker Run weekend with a ride in a sweet Sunsation 32 CCX center console. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

To get from Fort Lauderdale to Grove Harbour in Coconut Grove—the event’s starting point—on Thursday morning, I caught a ride on a Sunsation 32 CCX center console courtesy of Performance Boat Center. Jeff Corbel, who manages the multi-dealership’s South Florida location, and his wife, Jennifer, were perfect hosts.

They also were essential hosts because of as of Wednesday evening I had not considered how I would get from Fort Lauderdale to Coconut Grove at rush hour without sitting in traffic and spending a fortune with Uber or Lyft.

The Atlantic Ocean wasn’t sporty that morning, but it was a bit lumpy and confused. Running 40-plus mph, he 32-footer delivered a soft ride through all of it. And in one full hour of running, I didn’t hear a single rattle or creak.

My ride from Coconut Grove to Hawks Cay Resort on Duck Key—that much I had planned—came courtesy of Florida Powerboat Club president Stu Jones in his 2000 model-year Cigarette 38 Top Gun called Top Gun Flight 1130. The deep-cockpit boat is powered by two Mercury Racing 565 engines, hence the “1130” in its name, and obviously had no trouble cutting the glass of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Top Gun Flight 1130 is real-world reminder of why the Cigarette name means something special to true performance-boat fans. It’s also a great marketing vehicle for the Florida Powerboat Club and Mercury Racing.

The Top Gun Flight 1130 Cigarette 39 Top Gun offers a find reminded of what made Cigarette great.

Yesterday was a “free day,” meaning there was nothing on the Florida Powerboat Club agenda until the card-play and dinner celebration that evening. Jones had suggested that participants set up small-group lunch runs with no more 10 to 12 boats a dock space is limited in the Middle Florida Keys. I caught a ride in a GSX Powerboats 36 center console with Kruis Retherford, the owner of the Dothan, Ala., company, marketing manager Ashley Strong and their guests.

Our lunch destination? The Island Fish Company in Marathon—and the food and service were great. But the real treat was the journey, especially once we reached the Atlantic Ocean on our return leg to Hawks Cay. At 60 mph, the 36-footer powered by three Mercury Racing V-10 400R outboards effortlessly skipped from one wave-top to the next.

Yesterday’s ride in a GSX Powerboats 36 center console from Hawks Cay Resort to the Island Fish Company for lunch was as smooth as it gets.

Three fine boat rides in three different boats in two days—and we still have one day left. A group fun-run and raft-up about 15 miles from Hawks Cay is scheduled for this afternoon.

I have no plans for getting there. But I know I’ll figure it out.